Roma midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored a goal in the Roma vs Lazio clash in the Italian football season.
The midfielder of the Armenian national team scored in the 42nd minute.
In the current Italian season, 32-year-old Mkhitaryan is playing the 33rd clash, scored 12 goals and made 11 assists.
'Trudeau government must speak up to defend territorial integrity of Armenia' – MP Michael Chong
10:18,
YEREVAN, MAY 14, ARMENPRESS. Member of Parliament of Canada Michael Chong has expressed his concerns over the ongoing developments on Armenia’s borders.
“Concerned about reports of Azerbaijani troops crossing into Armenia. Having approved arms exports that upset the balance of power in Nagorno Karabakh war, the Trudeau government must speak up to defend the territorial integrity of Armenia”, Mr. Chong said on Twitter.
On May 12 in the morning the Azerbaijani armed forces crossed Armenia’s state border in the territory of Sev Lake in Syunik province and advanced up to 3,5 kilometers, trying to surround the Lake. Caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said this action is intolerable for Armenia, as it is an encroachment on the sovereign territory of Armenia.
So far, neither the Armenian nor the Azerbaijani side have used any weapon. The number of Azerbaijani soldiers in the territory of Armenia is about 250.
Recent developments around Armenia, the bitter defeat in 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) war, Russia’s feckless behavior as Armenia’s ally as well as the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Biden administration on April 24, 2021 posit a question:
Where should the new Armenia head to?
It is already clear that the country’s foreign policy needs a profound change to
face the challenges of the post-war period which indeed threaten the very sovereignty and even de jure independence of Armenia.
For centuries and even millennia the Armenian people in the Armenian Highlands and beyond have played a key role as a buffer nation between the Eastern and the Western civilizations, between the Northern and Southern nations (eg. Armenia between the Roman and Parthian Empires, between the Arabs and Byzantines, etc).
Armenian people have also undertaken that buffer role outside of the Armenian Highlands, such as the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia between the Crusaders, Byzantine Empire and Muslims, as well as huge Armenian colonies in Eastern Poland and Ukraine in the Middle Ages, Armenian merchants in Persia and even India who were successful enough to smoothly establish ties between the Europeans and the people of the East
in Late Middle Ages.
And even now with a globally dispersed Armenian diaspora heavily present in the areas where again the East meets the West, such as Krasnodar, Sochi areas in Russia’s south-west, Los Angeles in the west coast of the U.S. and so forth.
This exclusive know-how of the Armenian civilization to connect the West with the East and that role of the buffer nation urgently needs to take shape in and around the new Armenia as the nation fights to restore its geopolitical factor in the South Caucasus and the broader Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region after the defeat in 2020’s Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) war.
The 1920 Treaty of Sevres delegated the aforesaid buffer role to the first Armenian Republic (1918-1920) alongside another, more implicit civilizational and political undertaking – a powerful wedge between then collapsing Russian and Ottoman empires.
It has always been clear that Armenian civilization has been a wedge within the Turkish world but quite a few have seen Armenia as a wedge between Russia and Turkey partly because the Treaty of Sevres stayed on paper and the first Armenian Republic collapsed, thus giving away those roles of East-West buffer and Russia-Turkey wedge by the 1921 illegal treaties of Moscow and Kars.
After independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the third Armenian Republic had an excellent chance of positioning itself as a civilizational and political buffer between the East and the West, and a powerful wedge between Russia and Turkey, after the 1994 victory in the first Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) war, but missed it because of its one-sided foreign policy and myopic policy of dependence on Russia.
The defeat in 2020’s Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) war has woken up Armenians in the country and in the Diaspora to save Armenia from further collapse and find its path to development.
The institutionalization of the world’s Armenians has already taken place through network state concepts and structures.
There are scopes of people in those structures who apparently understand that the strategic location of Armenia and Armenian Diaspora’s efforts to help the
homeland may revive Armenia’s immediate capability of rediscovering its role as a buffer state between the East and the West, of hammering itself as a wedge between Russia and Turkey and within the Turkish world.
This will restore the geopolitical balance in the region and contain belligerent regional powers, thus building peace and grounds for prosperity in the MENA.
The more Turkey, Azerbaijan and other states try to destroy Armenia as a sovereign nation, the more the Armenian civilization maximizes its chances of recovering its role as a buffer and wedge, between the East and the West, between Russia and Turkey.
And since it is clear that the Armenian civilization is already heading to a network state structure uniting the world Armenians, the international community has got a unique opportunity of exercising that exclusively civilizational Armenian buffer-wedge power by working with the Armenians globally.
Armenia, a nation of several millennia, has contributed to human civilization by connecting the East and the West, the North and the South.
Armenia suffered a genocide 100 years ago and the Armenian ethnos was deprived of its cradle of civilization – the Armenian Highlands, in consequence of the Armenian Genocide.
And most recently, Armenia was shaken by the major loss of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) war in 2020.
The elimination of the Armenian factor in the MENA region will be a geopolitical disaster for many great and regional powers.
Armenians globally unite into a network state structure ready to work towards the restoration of Armenia’s buffer-wedge power and invite partner nations for dialogue.
Vahram Ayvazyan is the founder of the Network State movement. He is an International
Relations and Genocide scholar, startup founder and a Climate Reality Leader, personally
trained by former US vice president Al Gore.
MOSCOW, May 14 (Xinhua) — Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed a recent territorial dispute on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border in a telephone conversation with Armenia's Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday night, the Kremlin said Friday in a statement.
Putin said it is necessary to comply with the ceasefire regime agreed upon earlier within the joint statements by the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to the statement.
Russia is willing to act as a mediator and facilitate contacts between Yerevan and Baku amid a recent escalation between both sides, Putin added.
Pashinyan thanked the Russian president and called for "a constructive dialogue and interaction aimed at resolving any emerging problems solely by peaceful, political and diplomatic means," the Kremlin said.
Pashinyan on Wednesday accused Azerbaijani forces of crossing Armenia's border and said this was "an encroachment on the sovereign territory" of the country.
Azerbaijan called the claim provocative and assured it was committed to "defusing tensions in the region." Enditem
2. “Rethinking the Economic Model of Armenia”, by Vahan Zanoyan
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 15
Trend:
On 12th of May current year at 15:00 (GMT +4) virtual conference and exhibition took place, entitled: “The Landmine Epidemic and virtual contemporary art exhibition of humanitarian disaster caused by anti-personal landmines”.
Consultants from the UK and the Global Institute for Water Environment and health (GIWEH) from Geneva took part in the event. In the conference participated the representatives of the well-known international and local organizations and institutions.
The conference targeted to raise awareness about the risks of landmines and find the best practices for the regional safety enhancement and sustainable development of the liberated lands.
The conference discussed the consequences of the landmines to increase public awareness at the regional and international levels.
The increasing number of casualties as a result of the use of landmines in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan and many other war-torn countries have changed the debate from a political to a humanitarian issue to draw media and public attention, educate societies about the dramatic humanitarian impacts of landmines.
The message of the conference highlighted the importance of a rapid joint action at the international level to cope with rising challenges. The conference provided an overview of the potential risks of landmines in many countries including Azerbaijan and discussed possible opportunities for eliminating those impacts.
It was noted at the event that humanitarian crises start at a local level and early preventive actions need to be undertaken to avoid risks escalating and transforming into great challenges of global proportions.
The purpose of the conference was to seek help and find common solutions to the potential risks; reduce the existing level of hazards; reduce the probability of accidents at a local and regional level; and enhances cross-border cooperation between conflicting societies via the involvement of third parties.
In addition, the importance of raising awareness and the importance of joint action to maintaining stability and commit to peace among conflicting parties were highlighted. Increasing the level of casualties caused by the anti-personal landmines promotes hatred and turns into the obstacles in the future progress of the region.
All the guests and participants of the event throughout the conference voiced a very important idea, which consisted in an appeal to the Armenian leadership to show a constructive approach and to provide the Azerbaijani side with maps of minefields in the liberated lands.
The event participants expressed hope that through this conference they will be able to develop a common vision on cooperation and coordination in the field of anti-personal landmines, ensuring security and sustainable use of the liberated lands.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 15
Trend:
On , Minister Jeyhun Bayramov had a telephone conversation with his Tajik counterpart Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Trend reports citing the press service of MFA.
Minister Jeyhun Bayramov informed his counterpart about the tension on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border, noting that the Azerbaijani border forces are deployed in the positions of our country and this process is carried out in a normal and systematic manner.
The opposite side was informed that earlier there were some disagreements over the measures taken to strengthen the border protection system within the framework of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, but they were resolved through negotiations with the participation of the signatories of the trilateral statement.
It was stated that the leadership of the State Border Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan was immediately sent to the region in connection with the latest tensions on the border and talks were held with the border guards of the opposite side.
Minister Jeyhun Bayramov told the Tajik Foreign Minister, who currently chairs the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), that Armenia's appeal to the CSTO on this issue has no basis and is nothing but an attempt by Armenian authorities to politicize the issue.
Minister Jeyhun Bayramov stressed that such tensions should be resolved through political means and negotiations.
By Paul Goble
Ethnographers and anthropologists have long recognized that studying small groups on the margins of or between larger nations often provides critical insights into these larger communities. One such ethnic group is the Khemshils, a 400,000-strong community with Armenian roots but largely Turkic speaking and Muslim in religion.
Historically, they arose among Armenian communities in the southern Caucasus who were either forcibly Turkified and Islamicized or voluntarily changed their language and identity reflecting their changed political fortunes (trtrussian.com/mnenie/hemshily-kak-udalos-sohranit-edinstvo-naroda-5425931).
The Khamshils lived on both sides of the Turkish-Soviet border and in 1944, the eastern Khamshils who lived in 12 villages of Ajaria were deported by Stalin to Central Asia, a human tragedy that was deepened by the fact that only a very few were able to return to Georgia. As a result, large numbers have remained in Central Asia or moved to Krasnodar Kray.
Because they combine religious, linguistic and cultural elements that are generally thought to be irreconcilable, Alim Makhsutov, a blogger who specializes in Turkic groups of the Caucasus, they are not unified either as a group – there are many sub-ethnic communities within them – or as to who they are as a nation.
According to him, there are three distinct points of view in ongoing debates about who the Khemshils are and what their future will be. According to one, held by a majority of Muslim Khemshils, they are “Turks and have no relationship to Armenians,” whatever scholars say about their origins.
According to the second, “the Khemshils are a people separate from both the Turks and the Armenians.” That view is held by some Muslim Khamshils. And according to the third, “the Khemshils are a special group of Armenians, distinguished from them by language and partially religion,” a position taken by Christian Khemshils and those within the nation of left-wing views.
“As we see,” Makhsutov says, “the Khemshil Muslims, especially the Turkish language part, do not try to identify with Armenians,” the result of their experiences over the past century. But among all Khemshil groups, there are activists who promote a common identity and bridge divides that aren’t bridged elsewhere.
That is especially interesting because this bridge building is taking place primarily on the former Soviet space even though the center of Khemshil activism at present is to be found among communities in the major cities of Turkey which regularly promote exchanges between members of that nation there and members of it in Georgia and Russia.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Armenia and the Kurdistan Region are developing ties in the fields of technology and education, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has said as the Region’s Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani meets with officials in Yerevan.
A “preliminary agreement” was made between Yerevan and Erbil to bring Armenian companies to the Kurdistan Region “to teach youth aged 10-18 computer and IT skills,” read a KRG statement released on Friday.
The deputy PM met with a delegation of IT companies and senior officials including Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, and Minister of Industry and Technology Hayk Chobanyan, where they “decided on creating joint teams between the Kurdistan Region and Armenia to share Armenia’s experience with the Region in the fields of e-government and IT.”
The two sides also discussed “joint projects” between the polytechnic universities in the Kurdistan Region and Armenia.
Talabani is in Yervan for a three-day visit at the invitation of the Armenian government, accompanied by Minister of Planning Dara Rashid, and head of Council of Ministers’ office, Omed Sabah.
On Saturday, the second day of his trip, Talabani met with Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Aivazian to discuss initiating “direct flights between the Kurdistan Region and the Armenian Republic which are supposed to begin next month,” Talabani's spokesperson Samir Hawrami told Rudaw.
"“The two sides agreed on the importance of establishing trade ties and facilitating the issuance of visas and benefiting from Armenia's experience in the field of energy in the Kurdistan Region," he added.
Armenia opened a consulate and cultural center in the Kurdistan Region capital of Erbil in a ceremony in February.
"Armenians have settled in this country at various stages of history, including in Iraqi Kurdistan, and have received exceptionally friendly treatment from the authorities,” Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Artak Apitonyan said at the time.
More than 2,000 Armenians currently live in the Kurdistan Region, Yerwant Nisan, an Armenian community leader, and a former MP in the Kurdistan Regional Parliament told Rudaw in January.